ASUS Zen AiO Pro Z240IC Review: 4K All-In-One With Guts And Glitz

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Introducing The ASUS Zen AiO Pro

It’s been quite some time since we last looked at an all-in-one PC. Although there is clearly a niche market for AiOs, the product segment has always kept a consistent rythm in all facets of computing - consumer, enterprise and SMB. These types of systems appeal to style-conscious users and businesses that need computing utility with good looks, that blends in and stays out of the way. And though many are not powerhouses, a few do catch our enthusiast eye, and one of those few is the Asus Zen AiO Pro Z240IC, which Asus is billing as “The pinnacle of Windows all-in-one PCs.”

That may be a stretch and certainly a bold claim, but the Zen AiO Pro also looks pretty strong on its rap sheet, with a 4K display, discrete NVIDIA graphics and Intel's new Skylake 6th generation Core Series processors. So we brought one in to kick the tires.

The Zen AiO Pro’s biggest draw is bound to be its gorgeous, 23.8-inch 4K display. Asus plans to offer multiple models of the Zen AiO Pro with different resolutions. It sent us the top-of-the-line system, which features an Ultra HD 3840x2160 IPS touchscreen display at 185 pixels per inch. Given that you can’t upgrade the display of an all-in-one, this is one of the Zen AiO Pro’s most important features and one we'd suggest potential consumers invest in.

A quad-core Intel Core i7-6700T CPU powers the Zen AiO Pro (it's a 35W Skylake-S variant) and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M (a midrange mobile GPU) provides a serious boost over typical integrated graphics. The system also has 16GB of DDR4-2133 memory. Obviously, a desktop that is almost as slim as a laptop isn’t likely to be a gaming powerhouse, but with these specs the Zen AiO Pro should be able to hold its own.

On the storage side of things, the system has a 512GB PCIe SSD for its OS volume and a 1TB hard drive for bulk data storage. That’s robust even for a full-sized desktop and among AiO’s, the Zen AiO Pro’s storage subsystem is also very high end. Connectivity looks pretty solid, too, thanks to Gigabit Ethernet and up-to-date WiFi (802.11ac) support.

Like most AiOs the Zen AiO Pro includes a keyboard and mouse. Both connect to the system via a tiny USB wireless transceiver and feature metal-colored finished accents to match the Zen AiO Pro’s sleek look. Speaking of looks, let's dive in further on build quality and design.